The "Cell"
The "Cell" or the "Underground Network" is a neutral and expansive organization that trades in information in exchange for something equaly valuable which can be either huge sums of money, other specific information, objects or items. Everything that is given by the Cell will not allow any significant advantage to the customer unless more information is purchased. Thus the need for more information will keep following after one use of the Cell's services, and thus maintaining the well fare of the Cell's funds and operations. 'Background' It is unknown when the Cell was funded or created but many powerful and well-funded people have accessed their services for information gathering or trade no matter what they asked or demanded. The Cell is composed from multiple other Agents, each controlling a small team of subordinates that are responsible for information gathering, reclaiming "misplaced" propriety and some actions that require an application of force. The signature of the Cell is represented as a spider's web with a spider placed at the center, each link in the spider's web represents an Agent that is part of the handpicked men by "The Founder"; blindly loyal to him or her. It is also unknown who the person leading the Cell is, because this person has never been seen even by the Agents that were handpicked by him or her. Some say that the Cell runs itself, the Agents are the ones that are pushing orders around and are passing them off as if they were coming from someone important and mysterious. Another theory is that the Cell is run by a council of Agents that are older in this business and push around orders to newer Agents that are told only what they need to know. Because work is just as rewarding and the risks it involves, no one has ever asked too many questions as long as their pockets were full. Those that were nosing around in the Cell's business were gone for good, their very existance from the files that registered their birth date, job history, etc. were also gone. Formation The Agents and various others that are part of the Cell's small, private, army are composed from a variety of people. Most of them are former Investigators, Discharged Army Soldiers, Science Doctors and even Scientists; only a small part of the Cell is composed of humans and hirelings. Each of the members have the Cell's emblem, the spider's web, on their clothes while some even tattoo it on their bodies. The exact number of this army is not known since their numbers shift from day to day for those that try to keep track. Methods of operation The Cell's information flow mostly comes from hacked secure files from high valued targets in the goverment. The rest comes from trade while the other parts come from the traditional application of force or deep investigation. It's not always guaranteed that hacking will bring about the most information since the virtual warfare got more difficult with the passing of years and the advance of technology. Deep investigation requires a team to infiltrate highly dangerous places to steal or discover the required things demanded by a client or comes as an order from a high rank in the Cell. These missions are not as rare as they used to be but are ritchly rewarded if successful. The fancy, and rare, term for this kind of missions are refered to as "Espionage". For a handsome, or generous, bonus to the Cell's funds; this service also includes the oportunity of assassination or sabotage if the client is willing to pay or fulfill one of the Cell's demands. Direct application of force is necessary when a client breaks the deal, tries something that raises questions or some of the infromation is "misplaced" in the wrong hands. In the old days the fair trade and mutual trust allowed the Cell to prosper, but in more recent times force is now necessary and has proven to be too destructive for a simple recovering operation. The Cleaning up is usualy made by the Agents themselves. If a mission becomes a blunder or the media gets wind of a few hints to what exactly took place. The Agents have at their disposal exactly 12 hours to "clean up". They have the right to kill, bribe or fake infomation to cover everything up. Those that are responsible for the blunder are usualy executed or caused to dissapear.